Issues raised by ACON Exposed reported in the media.
December 2022
Forum: The Australian Workplace Equality Index and Trans inclusion
ABC Broadcast, 1 December 2022
Presented by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, at University of Melbourne, October 4, 2022.
Speakers:
Dr Julie Peters – Trans woman and activist, who works for the ABC.
Alan Davison – Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney
Linda Gale – Trade union industrial officer, active in the Australian Greens.
(moderator) Jon Faine — lawyer, ex-ABC broadcaster, writer, Vice Chancellors Fellow, University of Melbourne.
(Link)
November 2022
Concerns raised about government relationship with LGBTQ group
Judy Skatsssoon, Government News, 17 November 2022
But while ACON says its programs are about promoting inclusive workplaces, critics say initiatives like Pride in Diversity (PID) and the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) are about embedding the ideology of an interest group in what are supposed to be impartial public institutions.
(Link)
Note: ACON Exposed is not mentioned, but issues of concern to us are explored.
How AIDS charities are erasing gay men
Edie Wyatt, The Spectator, 10 November 2022
An HIV+ gay man claims to have been denied counselling by an AIDS charity because he openly refuses to include females in his dating life.
(Link)
The ABC, Playschool, and drag queen story hour
Katherine Deves, The Spectator, 9 November 2022
[The AWEI] scheme grades organisations on their compliance with embedding and prioritising a LGBTQ+ centric worldview, and directly conflicts with the rights of women. Platforming LGBTQ+ identified people and pushing their agenda earns an organisation points on the Index, it remains to be seen if featuring ‘Courtney Act’ on Playschool will earn the ABC points in their annual submission to AWEI.
(Link)
Media Watch complicit in transphobia
GreenLeft Weekly, 3 November 2022
This platforming of TERFs and other transphobic figures in state and corporate media, including in programs such as Media Watch, which claim to be balanced, has real-world harmful consequences for transgender and non-binary people.
(Link)
October 2022
Editorial: ABC MANAGEMENT IN NO-COMMENT MODE ABOUT THE ABC’s RELATIONSHIP WITH ACON
The Australian, 24 October 2022
Media Watch said that the ABC’s relationship between ACON and the public broadcaster “raises questions about the ABC’s impartiality”. Barry also covered ABC chair Ita Buttrose’s expression of regret for “serious editorial lapses” in an April 2022 “misleading” ABC story re transgender sport which failed to report a study that athletes born male were 12 per cent faster than those born female. This was covered in the previous issue of Media Watch Dog – which detailed Ms Buttrose’s correspondence with Liberal Party Senator Claire Chandler on this matter.
(Link)(Archive link)
Paul Barry watching his back after criticising ABC
Nick Tabakoff, The Australian, 23 October 2022
Diary now hears that in the wake of the segment [criticising ABC’s relationship with ACON], there were big dramas within the ABC’s Ultimo headquarters in Sydney. We’re told ABC Pride, Aunty’s staff-led group for those who identify as LGBTQIA+, held an extraordinary meeting the morning after the segment ran to air their grievances.
(Link) (Archive link)
Media Watch: “perceptions of bias… or to bias itself”
Destiny Rogers, QNews, 22 October 2022 (Link)
ABC news staff hit back at Media Watch over coverage of trans issues
Amanda Meade, Guardian Australia, 21 October 2022, (Link)
Stop Everything! Podcast
ABC, 21 October 2022
Benjamin Law and Beverley Wang discuss ACON’s involvement with the ABC. Starts at 12 minutes. (Link)
Trans rights or dangerous ‘agency capture’?
Edit Wyatt, The Spectator, 21 October 2022
Under the voluntary AWEI system, organisations gain ‘points’ for being compliant to the particular ideology of ‘diversity and inclusion’ that ACON promotes. The points are gained for participating in things like Wear it Purple day, hiring LGBTQ+ advocates, holding pride events, and using approved forms of language. The AWEI is essentially a competitive ranking system where organisations are invited to ‘game’ for free. Players are, of course, welcome to pay ACON for seminars where they can learn how to compete for the ‘gold stars’ more successfully.
(Link)
‘Disgraceful’: ACON’s editorial tips for ABC are ‘appalling’
Sky News Australia, 21 October 2022
How Alan Joyce is the patron of a lobby group that wants to stop workplaces from using the word MOTHER
Daily Mail Australia, 21 October 2022
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is patron of controversial not-for-profit LGBTQI group
The organisation pushing to remove terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’ at work
It wants words to be replaced by ‘primary and secondary caregiver’
Mr Joyce was named co-patron to ACON’s Pride in Diversity campaign in 2018
(Link)
Taxpayers funding group pushing for mother, father ban
2GB, 19 October 2022
‘Raises questions’: Media Watch pins ABC over partnership with LGBT group Acon
news.com.au, 18 October 2022
This is a good round-up of the situation, bringing in Kenny’s segment, the Media Watch segment, tweets from ABC journalists and statements from the ABC.
ABC reporters have responded to a recent Media Watch segment taking aim at the national broadcaster over its partnership with an LGBT group.
(Link)
Media Watch provided a ‘useful report’ into an ‘obvious case of ABC bias’
Chris Kenny, Sky News, 19 October 2022
Reporting on the Media Watch segment and the revelations about ACON’s advice to exclude gendered terms from maternity leave policies.
ACON: Trans lobby group advises removing ‘mum’, ‘dad’, from work policy to be more inclusive
Julie Cross, Daily Telegraph, 18 October 2022
Exclusive: The words ‘mother’ and ‘father’ should be replaced with ‘primary caregiver’ and ‘secondary caregiver’ in the workplace, according to a trans lobby group influencing a slew of Government departments and the ABC.
ACON – which stands for AIDS Council of NSW, but has diversified into national workplace policy – describes in a training video that the term ‘women becoming pregnant’ is a “traditional” view.
And, it warns HR staff to “be really careful” not to have any gendered language in their work policies.
(Link)(Archive link)
Media Watch: ACON & the ABC
ABC Media Watch, 17 October 2022 (Link)
ABC Media Watch uses the content and arguments supplied to them by ACON Exposed to mount the case that the ABC should review its relationship with ACON.
It is a point of irritation that Media Watch relied almost exclusively on ACON Exposed as a source of evidence without giving due credit. They agreed with the arguments presented on this site, but then labelled ACON Exposed ‘a women’s anti-trans group’.
When the ABC called ACON Exposed an anti-trans group, they implied that ACON Exposed attacks the rights of transgender individuals to live freely and equally. This is not true. ACON Exposed disagrees with the premise that internally-felt gender identity trumps protections required for biological sex.
In the coming days, a number of individuals and organisations will claim credit for the work presented on this site. That is because that our work is pains-taking, and our conclusions are solid.
We look at the relationship between the ABC and ACON, which runs the Workplace Equality Index Awards — a national benchmark on LGBTQ inclusion.
Can the ABC remain impartial when it partners with a lobby group and gets ranked in a competitive index?
Link
ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose regrets ‘serious editorial lapses’ in trans sport story
Clarissa Bye, Daily Telegraph, 14 October 2022
ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose said she regrets “serious editorial lapses” in an ABC story that was the subject of complaints for not including research that “trans women can retain physical advantages”. …
She also responded to a concern raised by the senator about whether the ABC’s “affiliations with lobby groups and participation in award programs influenced the framing” of the article.
Ms Buttrose said the ABC participates in the ACON-run Pride Inclusion program AWEI index but “they have no bearing on editorial processes”.
But blogger and IT specialist Kit Kowalski, who writes for the website ACON Exposed, says that ACON-approved training is now mandatory for all new ABC starters including journos and editors.
(Link)(Archive link)
Related on Sky News: ABC ‘owes an apology’ to Australians for ‘misleading them’: Katherine Deves (14 October)
September 2022
ACON pride in diversity scheme changing workplace culture for the worse: Clarissa Bye
Clarissa Bye, Daily Telegraph, 28 September 2022
It’s not a coincidence that government bureaucracies everywhere have suddenly started creating Pride networks and clubs. That they are bringing in paid “affirmation”, or transitioning leave, on top of the usual entitlements everyone else gets. Or inserting pronouns into work email tags.
(Link)(Archive link)
…
And it’s not just some Zeitgeist moment of synchronicity that Diversity Officers are being hired where their “job description, performance appraisal or work plan includes specific and detailed LGBTQI inclusion objectives/targets”. Every one of those initiatives is spelt out clearly as a requirement under a scheme being run by ACON, the AIDS Council of NSW. Funded by taxpayers with millions of dollars to be a health service, ACON has branched into its own version of workforce training.
August 2022
ACON is giving advice to Prime Minister’s Office, ABC, government departments, universities, police
Julie Cross, Daily Telegraph, 24 August 2022
Exclusive: Dozens of Government departments and institutions, such as the ABC, are seeking advice from a controversial trans lobby group that claims “birth mother” is an outdated term and workplaces should have “all gender toilets”.
Just last month, Services Australia – a paying member of the group ACON, a self-appointed expert on LGBTQ equality – was blasted for trialling the phrase “birthing parent” on Medicare forms instead of “birthing mother”. It reversed the decision after a public outcry.
(Link) (Archive link)
Woke Loos A Wee For All
Julie Cross, Daily Telegraph (print), 24 August 2022
ABC gay pride support falls flat
Julie Cross, Daily Telegraph, 24 August 2022
ABC managing director David Anderson has worked hard, including dancing on a Mardi Gras parade float, in an effort to win the corporation points on ACON’s equality index.
(Link) (Archive Link)
ACON Response to Daily Telegraph Articles
David Alexander, ACON Media and Communications, 24 August 2022
Photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash
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